The End of Nakedness

2Corinthians 5:1–5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
I. 2Cor.5:3-4
 A. Listen carefully to 1-3 "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked."
 B. At first Paul is using the image of dwellings in this passage: tents compared to buildings. He refers to these present bodies as tents because they are temporary dwelling places. But he refers to the bodies we will receive on the last day as buildings – from God – because they are eternal bodies.
 C. Then in v.2 he changes horses in mid-verse, switching from one image to another in mid-sentence, without changing the subject. He shifts to the image of putting on clothing, talking about being clothed with our present bodies now and being clothed with resurrection bodies in the future. The shift occurs in the middle of v.2, “in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.”
 D. Then, still using the image of being clothed with bodies, in v.3 he refers to being naked. When you’re using the image of clothing to represent the bodies we live in, nakedness can only mean one thing: not having a body at all. And that’s exactly what Paul means in v.3.
  1. This is clear from v.4: “For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” In other words, While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan — not that we want to be rid of our body altogether, but that we long to be clothed with a better body.
  2. He doesn’t view being naked positively: “we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed.”
  3. Or to put it another way, he wants it to be clear that what we’re yearning for is being clothed with a new body, not just being done with these bodies.
 E. You see, once we die, until the resurrection of the last day we have no body to be clothed in, thus we are naked for a time until we are "clothed with our dwelling from heaven" on the last day.
II. The intermediate state
 A. In theology, this time of “nakedness” is traditionally called "the intermediate state," the intermediate between death and the glorious day of resurrection when Christ returns. During that time we will be without bodies, though we will be with the Lord "in paradise" (Luke 23:43).
 B. Paul refers to this intermediate state in the next few verses: “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2Cor.5:6-8)
  1. “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
  2. This means that in one sense we are away from the Lord right now while we are in the body.
  3. When we die we go to be with the Lord, but we will be away from the body.
 C. You see, people are composed of two parts, body and soul/spirit.
  1. The body is mortal, meaning it can and will die (with a very few exceptions).
  2. The soul is immortal in that it will never die.
 D. It is very important that we understand that, although it is better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord than it is to dwell in this present existence, there is still something lacking and incomplete in the intermediate state, because we won’t have a body.
  1. That’s why Paul refers to it as nakedness. When we don’t have a body, we’re not yet who we’re supposed to be. There is a part of us which is still dead.
 E. This is the way it was with Jesus. He spent time in an intermediate state, too, didn’t He? After His death and before His resurrection He did not live in a body. The human soul of Jesus did not die, only His body did. His soul lived on during the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection (presumably in heaven), just as OUR souls live on after death.
  1. However, not until Jesus was resurrected was He vindicated and glorified and completed.
 F. Even in the intermediate state, death is better than this life, even though we will be separated from our bodies. We see this in:
  1. Phil.1:21, 23 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain...My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” 
  2. See, what makes death better is not what happens to our bodies but the fact that we are with Jesus.
  3. “This very day you will be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23:39-43
 G. It’s really a matter of good, better, and best.
  1. This life is good, the intermediate state will be better, & the final state of resurrection will be best.
  2. For believers in Christ, in this age we enjoy the precious salvation Jesus accomplished for us, plus He is with us through the Holy Spirit. We have His peace, His promises of a glorious destiny in His word, we have the company of God’s people traveling together marching to Zion.
  3. When we die, we leave this veil of tears, and the sin which dogs us now, and rise in spirit to dwell in the presence of the Lord, in paradise with those who have also departed in faith. There we will rest from toil, from sin, from frustration, from trouble until the day of His coming, waiting and longing for the day of our resurrection, and of the Lord’s justice, the completion of our salvation.
  4. Then when Christ is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire (2Thes.1:7-8), we will be caught up in the air to meet Him with all the saints (1Thessalonians 4:16-17), our bodies being raised up in glory and reunited with our spirits. As v.4 says, “what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” Then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, the earth will be dissolved, the heavens set on fire, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn (2Peter 3:10-12)! Then there will appear a new heavens and a new earth, full of God’s righteousness (Rev.21:1; 2Pet.3:13). We will be presented to our Lord as His bride, in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). And from that point on “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” – Rev.21:1-4.
   a. On that day, we will finally be fully free.
   b. It will be the grand finale of history: "the freedom of the glory of the children of God." That is the day when God will fully "make known the riches of His glory upon the vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory." (Rom.9:23)
  5. Each stage is better than the last. This means that our orientation should be forward, not backward. We should be yearning for the next stage, not the last one. We should be groaning for our true home with Christ rather than moaning that we aren’t what we used to be.
  6. It may feel like we’re headed toward death, but the fact is, those in Christ are headed toward life!
  7. We are mortal creatures, but one day our mortality will be swallowed up by life!
 H. The resurrection of our bodies is part of our glorification (e.g. Rom.8:30). Glorification is when we reach the point of real fullness and freedom. This is when we become all we were meant to be.
 I. Though God is a spirit, He created a world that is physical/material. And He said it was very good. He created us to dwell in physical bodies in a physical world. And it was good.
 J. He sent His Son in a physical human body to live in the physical world. And on the third day after the crucifixion, Christ was reunited with His body, though it was a far superior version of His body.
 K. And though the world is now cursed and though man lives in sin and misery, a day is coming when God will remake the world and our bodies, and we will dwell in new, spiritual, eternal and yet still physical bodies in a new, yet still physical, world for all eternity. This is the Christian hope.
III. In the meantime we groan, not from a desire to be separated from our bodies, but rather from a desire to have our bodies renewed. We long for final redemption. We long to enter into the fullness of being clothed with glorified bodies.
 A. We were made body and soul together. That’s how we were meant to exist.
  1. In the mindset called Gnosticism, everything that is physical is believed to be tainted with evil, and therefore existence OUTSIDE the body is optimal.
  2. But this is not at all what the Bible teaches. Existence outside the body, even in the presence of Jesus, is nakedness.
  3. However, in our resurrected state we will be completely and finally free.
 B. What’s the big deal? Am I just being theologically nitpicky? What does it matter whether people get new bodies or not? I think it does matter.
  1. If we think of heaven as some place far removed from here, some ethereal “up there,” where we’re floating around on the clouds, it’s hard for us to connect with what’s it’s like to be there.
  2. I don’t think it’s taking seriously what the Bible tells us that we will live on a remade earth, which means that in all the best ways our lives will be similar to what they are now, but without the fear, without the sin, without the pain and sorrow, without the weakness, without the frustration and failure, without the loss, without the strife.
  3. It seems to me that this is something people can really get excited about, something people can actually imagine.
  4. But the idea of floating in the clouds, singing with the angels and an existence completely different than this one, I don’t think gives us the help and encouragement we need.
  5. CS Lewis: The Last Battle  At the end of the Narnia series, when Narnia has been destroyed and the friends of Aslan have grieved over the loss, they venture further — into Aslan’s country. And suddenly they begin to recognize things, though they’ve never been there before. A rock, a stream, a tree. “It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried, ‘I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this!”
  6. There are a lot of hard things here, things which will not be a part of our heavenly existence. But the best things of the earth will be there in heaven, along with many new pleasures, enjoyments, abilities, beauties and glories.
  7. But the best thing of all is that we’ll be with the Lord. We’ll see Him face to face, and we’ll be like Him. As v.6 says, right now in one sense we are away from the Lord, and in v.8 “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
  8. But when Christ returns, we will have both! Forever!
  9. Some of Paul’s final words as he faces death (2Timothy 4:8) “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”